AP: Spelling Bee protesters

[David Bowie]

From:    "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>
> What about the allegation that it takes fewer words (and presumably
> letters) to write something in English than in other European
> languages?  My sampling is admittedly small, being limited to subway
> warning signs in English and Spanish.

 From my memory of riding Eurocity trains a couple decades ago, when
there were parallel texts in English, French, and German on the
timetables, French was the shortest, German the longest. (I can't read
French, but the English and German certainly always said the same
thing.) I didn't see other languages as often, but IIRC Italian texts
were about the same length as the English ones, and Czech was between
the length of English and German.

David Bowie

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